| ‘ALTHOUGH I’d lie lapped up in linen | |
| A deal I’d sweat and little earn | |
| If I should live as live the neighbours,’ | |
| Cried the beggar, Billy Byrne; | |
| ‘Stretch bones till the daylight come | 5 |
| On great-grandfather’s battered tomb.’ | |
| |
| Upon a grey old battered tombstone | |
| In Glendalough beside the stream, | |
| Where the O’Byrnes and Byrnes are buried, | |
| He stretched his bones and fell in a dream | 10 |
| Of sun and moon that a good hour | |
| Bellowed and pranced in the round tower; | |
| |
| Of golden king and silver lady, | |
| Bellowing up and bellowing round, | |
| Till toes mastered a sweet measure, | 15 |
| Mouth mastered a sweet sound, | |
| Prancing round and prancing up | |
| Until they pranced upon the top. | |
| |
| That golden king and that wild lady | |
| Sang till stars began to fade, | 20 |
| Hands gripped in hands, toes close together, | |
| Hair spread on the wind they made; | |
| That lady and that golden king | |
| Could like a brace of blackbirds sing. | |
| |
| ‘It’s certain that my luck is broken,’ | 25 |
| That rambling jailbird Billy said; | |
| ‘Before nightfall I’ll pick a pocket | |
| And snug it in a feather-bed, | |
| I cannot find the peace of home | |
| On great-grandfather’s battered tomb.’ | 30 |
